New Delhi: China’s deadly corona virus has started to affect the health sector as well. In India, the prices of essential medicines for daily use have gone up by 70%. The price of paracetamol, the most used in the country, has increased by 40%.
The price of azithromycin, an antibiotic used to treat throat, tooth and ear infections caused by bacteria, has gone up by 70%. Most of the chemicals related to medicines come from China and supply has been affected due to the movement of traffic.
According to a report in India, the price of a box of paracetamol was earlier Rs 130 which has now increased to Rs 190. Similarly, the price of one box of azithromycin has increased from 300 to 450 and one can of Nimuslide has increased from 85 to 118 rupees.
The N-95 mask used to ward off the virus is not found in most places. The price of 500 mL sanitizer has increased from 230 to 350 rupees and similarly the price of nebulizer has increased from 1080 to 1208 rupees.
The India Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) termed the import of raw materials from China as ‘serious’ and said that the Indian pharmaceutical industry has stocks of active pharmaceutical components (APIs) for only two to three months.
On the occasion of BioAsia 2020, IPA Secretary General Sudarshan Jain said that they are in touch with the Center on this issue and are seeking fast environmental clearance for some API manufacturing units, so that dependence on China is reduced.
Jain said that India imports APIs worth Rs 17,000 crore from China. China currently suffers from the Corona virus and due to this its foreign trade has been badly affected. He said, ‘This is a very serious situation. Nobody can guess what is going to happen. We have two to three months’ shipment.
Jain hoped for some relief from the march. He said, “If we start getting supplies from the first week of March (from China), we might be able to come out of the problem.” However, he added that it is extremely difficult to predict when the condition will improve.
